


roses without petals

by tusktooth



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Chatting & Messaging, Drinking Games, F/F, Love Confessions, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26021176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tusktooth/pseuds/tusktooth
Summary: When Skrank accidentally adds seven people to a group chat instead of messaging them separately, Danielle meets six of the coolest people in the world. When they meet up, she's afraid that she won't measure up to the image that they have of her, especially not to Skrank's beautiful ex-girlfriend, Ostentatia Wallace.
Relationships: Danielle Barkstock/Ostentatia Wallace
Comments: 14
Kudos: 40





	roses without petals

**Author's Note:**

> walstock lives in my head rent free!!! also this fic is completely based on [THIS](https://twitter.com/SPRlNGBREAK2005/status/987393689000599552)  
> anyway obviously there isn't much in terms of characterization for the seven maidens besides zelda so my house now  
> [find me un tumblr](http://adaine.tumblr.com/)

**_skrank.douglas_ ** _ has added you to a group chat _

**skrank.douglas** **  
** happy friday! any plans this weekend?

**cleavher**

…

did you just make a gc w 7 girls so you can flirt???

**goodluckstone**

now THAT’S entrepreneurship

**samiam**

probably was gonna send us all his feathery dick and wound up making a group instead

**skrank.douglas**

oops! this text was meant for my mother. i don’t know how i accidently made a group. hope you lovely maidens are having a nice afternoon!!!

**bejeweledcleric**

likely story asshole

if you’re gonna cheat at least send me a message that’s distinct from the ones you send everyone else

**druidbarkstock**

wait skrank has a girlfriend?

i genuinely liked him before all of this

**bejeweledcleric**

he doesn’t have one anymore

**jonesantiope**

DAMN!

**skrank.douglas**

babe we can talk about this

**bejeweledcleric**

nah. i’m good.

**xx_zelda_xx**

this is like really mean, skrank.

because like i have a boyfriend

and i TOLD YOU that

and you’re still trying to message me?

when you have a girlfriend too?

**samiam**

if anything he’s messaged me MORE since i told him that i had a gf

**druidbarkstock**

ugh gross

**cleavher**

fuck this dude let’s kick him out and send each other nudes

**samiam**

fdsajfkldsjk if my gf is cool with it then sure

**druidbarkstock**

i don’t think you can kick someone from snap groups

**goodluckstone**

unfortunately he has to choose to leave himself

we can make a new group tho!

**cleavher**

or we can just say things abt him until he becomes a husk of a man and leaves the chat of his own free will

**jonesantiope**

our house now!

**bejeweledcleric**

fuck yeah!

**_skrank.douglas_ ** _ has left the chat _

**xx_zelda_xx**

that was fast

**samiam**

the evil is defeated

also aelwyn says she’s chill if i send nudes

**bejeweledcleric**

i mean i’m newly single and i like girls so i’d be thrilled to see what you have to offer

**druidbarkstock**

i don’t know if i’m comfortable with that

**xx_zelda_xx**

me neither.

i like don’t even send them to my boyfriend so

**goodluckstone**

how about selfies and intros then?

**samiam**

sounds good to me

**_samiam_ ** _ has sent an image _

**samiam**

hello everyone! i’m sam and here’s me w my gf aelwyn!

i was personally victimized by skrank bc i did a group project with him for an online summer program for hs students @ bastion u and he decided my contact info was his posession now.

**goodluckstone**

same situation except i was tutoring him for something!

**_goodluckstone_ ** _ has sent an image _

**goodluckstone**

hi everybody!!! my name is penny and im an ace lesbian so i rlly don’t know what he was trying to do!!!

**_bejeweledcleric_ ** _ has sent an image _

**bejeweledcleric**

im ostentatia and i was the one unlucky enough to date that bastard

**_cleavher_ ** _ has sent an image _

**cleavher**

howdy im katja (she/they) and from how i see it skrank’s type is wlw who hate him :))

except zelda ig???

**xx_zelda_zz**

im bi actually!

**_xx_zelda_xx_ ** _ has sent an image _

**xx_zelda_xx**

this is a pic of me and my boyfriend gorgug

like he’s bi too so it’s pretty chill

**_jonesantiope_ ** _ has sent an image _

**jonesantiope**

as you can probably tell from my username im antiope jones lol

and that’s my dog in the pic

**cleavher**

who needs nudes we got puppy pics

**goodluckstone**

skrank has no idea what he’s missing

_ you have sent an image _

**druidbarkstock**

i guess im the last one! i’m danielle and here’s my pic.

**bejeweledcleric**

shit danielle you’re like really pretty

**cleavher**

YOU’RE ALL SO FUCKING HOT WTH

**samiam**

say what you will abt skr*nk but he had good taste in women

**jonesantiope**

SKR*NK

**samiam**

i like to censor truly foul language

**xx_zelda_xx**

oh my god fjalfkdlkafjds

**goodluckstone**

so where are you guys all from?

**bejeweledcleric**

elmville. i’m a senior at aguefort.

**xx_zelda_xx**

wait i go to aguefort too

but im a freshman

**samiam**

he was messaging a freshman???

that’s so fucking gross

also i live up in seawatch

**cleavher**

men are trash!!!!!!!!!!!!

and im from ashgrove

**druidbarkstock**

i live just outside bastion city

**goodluckstone**

i live in bastion!!!

**jonesantiope**

me too penny!

**samiam**

we should all meet up

im the farthest away from the rest of you so if i drive down there’s really no excuse!

(but if you don’t want to that’s fine!!!)

**cleavher**

i’d be majorly down to meet up

**bejeweledcleric**

i mean i have room at my place

and a pool

**xx_zelda_xx**

that works well for me because i like can’t drive yet so in town is good

* * *

Meeting in person was intimidating, to say the very least. Elmville wasn’t terribly far from Bastion City and Danielle could take the train, so that much was manageable but the thought of meeting these girls that she didn’t know beyond being unfortunate enough to all have connected in some way with the same guy, it was kind of scary, even if they’d been texting pretty much nonstop since they first started messaging.

Their group chat had quickly been dubbed the Seven Maidens, as a play on what Skrank had called them and the other maidens were just so cool. Firstly, they were drop-dead gorgeous. As in seeing them fully sent Danielle, who had always thought that she was straight into a sexuality crisis. They were also smart and witty and super fun to chat with. Danielle, well, she didn’t think that she was any of those things. Each of them had their own charms and she had just about nothing.

Penny was the sweetheart of the bunch, which wasn’t something that you usually expected of a rogue. She offered kindness and a positive attitude to anyone who might need or want it and did it without necessarily expecting the same in return.

Sam was certainly the most charismatic one of the bunch. She was funny and cool, probably one of the more popular girls at her school, but still happy to chat with the rest of them.

Katja had this interesting brash wit and somewhat deadpan humor that she hadn’t encountered much before but really appreciated. They were fiercely loyal to the group, even before they had all met in person.

Antiope was quiet, but not in an awkward way like Danielle was. No, she used silence as a tool and placed her words exactly where necessary to make a worthwhile contribution. Also, she had a really cute dog.

Zelda was a bit awkward, in the most charming way possible. You could tell that she was often worried about saying the right thing, but she was super sweet and sometimes spewed endlessly about the things that she carried about, which was adorable. She always apologized for it, but she didn’t have to. They all wanted to hear what she had to say.

And then there was Ostentatia Wallace, who was probably the most perfect person that Danielle had ever met. She was funny and she always made sure she was included and she was unabashedly the person that she was. Ostentatia was probably the most beautiful person that she had seen in her entire life, and that was based on pictures alone. While the maidens as a whole had made Danielle start to question if she was straight or not, it was Ostentatia that made it painfully clear that she wasn’t.

She had been chatting with Ostentatia more than she chatted with anyone else. Not long after the creation of the group chat, Ostentatia had sent her a private message and they’d been chatting one-on-one ever since.

First, they mostly spent time unpacking what Skrank had done to both of them. Because he’d been flirting with all of them but they were the only two people who genuinely cared and saw it going somewhere. It was nice that they could talk without any bad blood and bond over how they’d been hurt by the same person and discuss how they move forward for that.

But after that, they chatted about all the little things. Good morning texts, complaining about school, discussing TV shows. They shared the little bits of everyday life with each other in a way that Danielle hadn’t really done with anyone who wasn’t family. 

(They chatted about deeper things too, like Ostentatia’s father being unemployed or Danielle’s insecurities in social interactions that were with anyone that wasn’t her fox. Those conversations mostly occurred after midnight on the nights that Danielle held closest to her heart.)

Originally, she thought she really wanted more than anything to be Ostentatia’s best friend but, over time, she began to realize that those feelings were more than platonic. Perhaps it was pathetic to have a crush on a girl that you had never really met, but Danielle couldn’t help how her heart raced when Ostentatia asked her about how her healing class went or rambled on about the goddess that she followed.

So, yeah, while Danielle wanted to meet Ostentatia and the other maidens more than anything, it  _ was _ intimidating. She cared about these people so much and she was worried that, once they interacted with her in person, they would change their minds. These six people, that she bonded with over the strangest of circumstances, were extremely important to her. How could she handle losing them?

A tap on her shoulder made her jump and nearly fall out of her seat on the train.

She turned to find a smiling halfling girl with flowers in her hair and a dark-skinned human girl with short dreadlocks pushed to one side.

“Danielle?!” asked Penny. “Honestly, it’s a miracle that the Bastion girls all got on the same train!”

“Can we sit?” Antiope asked.

She nodded and Antiope pushed the back of the seat in front of her so that the train seats were facing each other before sliding into the other side, Penny following after.

“This is so exciting!” Penny exclaimed. “We’re all going to hang out at Ostentatia’s place all weekend and get to know each other in a way that you can’t over text.”

Danielle chewed on her lip. That was exactly what she was worried about: showing the parts of herself that couldn’t necessarily be communicated via a group chat on their crystals.

“I think it’ll be fun,” Antiope agreed. “It’s obvious that we get along and, if I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t had a sleepover since I was a little kid.”

“Really?” Penny asked. “I have them all the time. Mostly with the boy in my apartment complex that I used to babysit. I haven’t had a sleepover with other girls in a long time, certainly not with a group.”

“Gods,” Danielle muttered, reliving all the group slumber parties from her elementary school years. There hadn’t been a ton of them, but they were all memorable in the worst ways possible. Then again, maybe that had more to do with the people that she was with.

“I can imagine sleepovers with teenagers would be different. Less stupid little kid drama,” Antiope mused as if she were some sort of mind-reader which she wasn’t, to the best of her knowledge.

“I wouldn’t know. Riz isn’t exactly the type of guy who makes drama,” Penny said with a laugh.

“Do you think we’ll have drama?” she asked her.

Penny shrugged. “If we do, it probably won’t be in a bad way. I don’t think anyone in our group would ever intentionally do something to hurt anyone else without serious manipulation or something. It’s going to be nice!”

Danielle nodded and Antiope  _ also _ nodded, neither of them moving to add anything afterward.

“Always the quiet ones of the group,” Penny said with a grin and a wink. “Don’t worry, I’m more than willing to do all the talking for you during this train ride. Interesting or not, I have plenty of stories to tell.”

The rest of the train ride passed in relative peacefulness as Penny launched into a lengthy story about a babysitting misadventure that she’d had a few years back.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, actually meeting everybody. She was already getting along with Penny and Antiope pretty well. Then again, Penny and Antiope weren’t Ostentatia.

* * *

When the three of them did arrive at Ostentatia’s house, she wasn’t actually home. Apparently, she and Sam had gone to pick up a few things that they deemed necessary for the weekend. Ostentatia’s dad was away, interviewing for a job down in Birchburg, so they truly had the weekend alone which meant, if Danielle were to guess, that they were picking up alcohol.

The first person that Danielle met upon arriving at the Wallace home was Katja Cleaver, who wrapped each of them in bone-cracking hugs upon their arrival.

“We’re gonna have such a great time this weekend you guys,” they said with a grin. “It’s gonna be a two-day party with no sleep in between.”

“Yes, sleep in between,” Antiope replied with an amused smile. “Absolutely sleep in between. I will enjoy partying with you regardless.”

Katja rolled her eyes. “Well, I suppose I can settle for that.”

They all headed into the house together to drop off their bags and pillows in the upstairs bedroom. The other three stayed to chat upstairs for a while but Danielle headed back down to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

When she got inside, Zelda was sitting at the table, playing on her crystal in a way that made it look like she was busy but, from a small glance at the screen, she was just switching between three apps that didn’t seem to be updating with anyone new.

Danielle grabbed her water and sat in the seat across from her. “Hi,” she greeted.

Zelda set down her crystal and smiled. “Hello.”

“It’s a bit overwhelming,” Danielle admitted. “I’m excited to be here but it’s also I don’t have the same energy as the others, I guess.”

“It’s kind of scary,” Zelda replied. “Like I really wanted to meet everyone but like you’ve only known me through the screen of a crystal.”

“I’m scared too,” she told her. “But I think it’ll be really good to know everyone not on a crystal.”

“I think so too,” she said with a smile. “But that doesn’t make it like any less scary, you know?”

“It doesn’t,” Danielle agreed. “But maybe it’ll get less scary as we go on. We haven’t even all been in the same place at once yet.”

The stomping of feet on the stairs alerted them to the arrival of the three that had been mingling upstairs.

“Zelda!” Penny exclaimed. “It’s so awesome to meet you!”

Danielle smiled softly. It was comforting to know that she wasn’t the only one who was intimidated by all of this.

* * *

“We’ve got the stuff!” exclaimed a voice from the doorway about 30 minutes later. “Party time, y’all!”  
Sam emerged into view, a bottle of gnomish wine in one hand and a case of dwarven cider in another. “Everyone is here! It’s great to meet all of you and I can’t wait to hang out this weekend. Ostentatia’s getting the last of the stuff out of the car.”

“I’ll go help her,” Danielle offered, without really thinking about it until she realized how eager she probably sounded. Luckily, none of the other maidens called her on it.

She rushed out the door, trying not to make eye contact with them as she went by, and made her way toward a truck with an open trunk.

When she saw Ostentatia, she stopped dead in her tracks. She was somehow even more beautiful in person. Her ruddy blond hair blew ever so slightly in the wind and her green eyes shone brightly as she struggled with whatever she was trying to get out of the car.

“Ostentatia,” Danielle said, a bit breathlessly. “Hi.”

Her head snapped toward her and she stared at her with wide eyes. “Oh, Danielle, hi! Welcome to Elmville! How are you liking it?”

“Yeah, um, it’s good,” she replied. “Your house is super nice. I came out to help you with whatever you need to get out of the car.”

“That would be great!” she said, beckoning her over before putting two cases of soda in her arms.

Ostentatia picked up a big case of water and then awkwardly closed the trunk before walking toward the house wordlessly.

She stopped for a moment before following. Had she fucked up? She’d barely said anything. Maybe she had been misreading the tone of Ostentatia’s messages all along. She was probably just being polite. Who was to say that she wasn’t messaging everyone privately?

But Ostentatia wasn’t Skrank. She could never be Skrank. Maybe this was just a big misunderstanding.

* * *

As the night passed they didn’t have much interaction, at least not individually. This get-together was, after all, about the group as a whole, not about them as individuals.

They ordered take out from a Baronese place in town and sat down in a circle, chatting about their trips to Elmville and their lives as a whole.

Most of the girls were drinking and, for a moment, Danielle was worried that she was going to be weird for not really wanting to, due to a fear of letting her guard down and revealing her crush on Ostentatia, but Katja, the biggest and buffest of them, assured her that she didn’t have to drink or do anything that she didn’t want to do and she was able to relax a fair bit about it. Besides, Zelda and Antiope weren’t drinking either.

Penny was the first one to get truly drunk, evidently not having much in terms of constitution though, to her defense, Danielle didn’t think she would be doing much better had she been drinking.

“Let’s play like truth or dare or something,” she suggested, half-asleep on the floor.

Antiope raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that you’re up for that?”

“I’m doin’ great, ‘scuse me,” she slurred.

Sam, who was probably a drink away from where Penny was, started laughing uncontrollably. “Sure, you’re doing  _ fantastic _ .”

Katja laughed. “You’re all a bunch of fucking lightweights.”

“I’m doing fine,” Ostentatia announced, holding up her cider. “And a game sounds fun. It could be a good way to get to know each other better.”

“Never hard I ever?” Katja suggested.

Danielle furrowed her eyebrows. “Do you mean ‘never have I ever?’”

“It’s the same thing in concept but there’s a spell involved, so you can’t play without a caster who knows it or a potion,” Antiope told her. “The spell is to prevent lying so, if you lie and you fail a constitution save, you slowly start getting turned to stone. Three bad lies and you’re out until the spell ends.”

“If you’re willing to spend enough money, there’s a potion that they sell that makes it so there  _ is _ no con save,” Ostentatia added. “I don’t have it though. I actually don’t even have the spell prepped right now, which is dumb because this is a party.”

“I have it prepped,” Sam offered, throwing her arm up in the arm dramatically.

“Thank the gods that it isn’t a concentration spell,” Katja muttered under their breath, making Zelda laugh just a little bit.

They gathered in the circle, each making sure they had a full drink (luckily, the spell wasn’t alcohol exclusive) and Sam quickly cast it.

“As the caster, I get to go first,” she announced. “Never have I ever gone a summer without visiting the beach.”

The people from inland cities and, surprisingly, Antiope, groaned as they each sipped their drinks.

“Clockwise?” Penny asked as she fully leaned on Zelda for support. “‘Cause I got one. I’m ready to go whenever. I could go yesterday if I had to.”

Katja snorted. “Sure, Penny. Go ahead.”

The game continued on, with stupid questions and lots of drinking. They had to take a break after the first round to bring Penny over to the couch after she fell asleep in Zelda’s arms. The people that were actually drinking got progressively more drunk as the game went on.

And it really was fun. They had met over the strangest of circumstances, all being texted by some rude boy, but they had managed to build a real, solid friendship from it. Now, they could joke around and laugh and it was like Skrank had never existed in the first place. Maybe she should send him a thank you card but, then again, he would probably take it as an invitation and she  _ definitely _ didn’t want that.

It wasn’t until the third or fourth round that a question came up that actually make Danielle feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Uhh,” Zelda said, looking a little uncomfortable as she always did when it got around to her town and their eyes were on her. “Never have I ever wanted to like have sex with anyone in this group.”

Sam winked at nobody in particular and took a sip of her drink. Antiope and Katja also drank.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” she asked Sam.

She shrugged. “Aelwyn and I discussed this type of thing long before I met any of you. I don’t want to get into the details of it, but it’s cool, as long as it’s something that we communicate about.”

“Anyone else?” Ostentatia asked, a bit impatient.

Danielle attempted to discreetly take a sip of her drink but it was too late. By being the last one to drink, she had already called attention to herself.

“Don’t hide your sip, own that shit!” Sam encouraged. “Sexual feelings are normal and nobody here is going to shame you for them.”

“Fuck no, we won’t!” Katja agreed.

“Antiope, it’s your turn,” Ostentatia interjected.

As Antiope struggled to think of something, Danielle watched Ostentatia out of the corner of her eye. She hadn’t had to drink for the last prompt, which was slightly disappointing, but it wasn’t like Danielle only liked her sexually. She also liked her romantically, or even just as a friend. Still, she could have sworn that Ostentatia’s movements had become ever so slightly more rigid.

* * *

After another round, they all decided to go to sleep. Those who had been drinking were practically falling asleep on their feet and those who hadn’t were tired anyway from traveling to Elmville and having to herd everyone else into some sort of comfortable sleeping position.

Danielle ended up on the floor of the living room, squeezed tightly between Katja and Zelda, the latter of which took up a surprising amount of space despite being relatively small.

It didn’t take her long to fall asleep, despite the uncomfortable decision.

It was a dreamless sleep and, the next thing she knew, a tapping on her leg sent her eyes blearily blinking open.

Ostentatia was standing at her feet, looking a bit pale, with a thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “Can we talk?” she whispered, nodding toward the door.

She nodded and tried to wriggle out of the position that she was stuck in without waking the people sleeping next to her and, when that was obviously not going to work, she briefly transformed into a gecko and scuttled out the door after her before transforming back into herself.

“That was cool,” Ostentatia said, chewing on her lip as she climbed into the bed of a truck.

Danielle climbed up after her and they sat shoulder to shoulder, looking at the stars that were barely visible against the slowly brightening sky. “Thanks.”

“Ugh, I feel like shit,” she complained. “I should have taken a card out of your book and avoided drinking altogether. Especially when we started playing that stupid game.”

“It was pretty dumb,” Danielle agreed, not quite meeting her eye.

“I-” she started, pausing and taking a deep breath. “Danielle, I haven’t been very fair to you since you got here.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, chewing on her lip nervously.

“I kind of brushed you off when we first met,” she admitted. “And I’ve been avoiding spending time with you specifically without the rest of the book. And during the game, I lied.”

“About what?”

“Look, Danielle, I like you,” Ostentatia confessed. “I like you a lot and I don’t know what to do about it. Because it feels like I shouldn’t like you at all. I mean, my ex was trying to cheat on me with you and now I’ve only just barely broken up with him and I’m already falling for you.”

“I don’t think feelings are something you can control,” she said quietly. “I’ve tried. And who's to say that anything about this is wrong? We were caught up with a bad guy. It isn’t either of our faults and I think it’s nice that we’ve been able to put it behind us so quickly.”

Ostentatia finally turned to look at her, a frown on her face. “You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met, Danielle. I can’t turn you into a rebound. Especially not a rebound for _Skrank_.”  
“Are you over him?” she asked.

“Pretty much immediately. We weren’t together for very long.”

“Then I don’t think it counts as a rebound,” she told her. “And I don’t think there’s such a thing as moving on too fast when the feelings are genuine and the breakup has already happened.”

“What would people think?” Ostentatia asked.

“Does it matter?” Danielle replied, surprising herself. Usually, everything she  _ did _ depended on what other people would think about it. But, with Ostentatia, she didn’t really care.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said with a nod. “Maybe it doesn’t. Still, it feels so fucked up that I only met you because of what he did to me.”

That thought had crossed her mind as well.

“Then let’s start over,” she suggested, holding out a hand. “My name is Danielle Barkstock. I’m a druid from the outskirts of Bastion City and I have a really cute fox.”

She smiled slightly and shook her hand. “Ostentatia Wallace. Cleric from Elmville. It’s really nice to meet you and I’m kind of offended that you failed to bring your fox here.”

Danielle laughed. “Next time, maybe.”

“So there will be a next time?” she asked.

“I sure hope so,” she replied with a nod. “I think you’re the prettiest girl that I’ve ever seen. I can’t let this be the only time I get to see you.”

“Do you want to go on a date sometime maybe?” Ostentatia asked.

A wide smile spread across Danielle’s face. “I’d really like that. Maybe I can show you around the city.”

“Except  _ I _ asked first,” she told her. “So we’re going to get ice cream at Basrar’s before you go home on Sunday.”

Danielle leaned over and hesitantly kissed her on the cheek. “That sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Ostentatia smiled and grabbed her hand, pulling her close. “Until then, let’s just watch the stars together, at least until the sun comes up.”

And, well, there was nothing else that Danielle would rather do.


End file.
